Allow me to set the scene:
It’s freshman year in high school. It’s 10 PM on the night before picture day at school. You are attempting to choose an outfit to wear the next day that will make you look good for both the yearbook and the cute guy in your Algebra class.
While analyzing your closet, you have trouble finding the perfect shirt to pair with your new American Eagle jeans you just got the week before. You become very frustrated and your room is now filled with piles of rejected shirts; soon after, you cannot even see the floor anymore and are more overwhelmed than you were before.
Despite the fact that you have an abundant amount of clothes hangers available to use, you continue to collect rejected shirts in a messy pile instead of hanging them back up where they belong. The higher the pile gets, the more desperate you become.
After an hour of attempting to find the perfect shirt, you finally decide on which one to wear. However, it was a shirt you tried on towards the beginning of your fashion show fiasco. By now, it is covered by multiple pounds of rejected shirts and is unable to be found.
After an hour of searching, your room is even more disastrous than before, and you still haven’t found the shirt you decided on wearing for picture day. It’s now well-past midnight and you still have no shirt. Since you never found the shirt you wanted to wear, you decide to wear some random black shirt that you don’t even like very much. You decide on the black shirt by default. It’s the least wrinkled shirt you now have; the rest are heavily wrinkled from sitting in the messy pile for too long.
The next day, you go to school wearing your subpar black shirt, wishing you had found the one you desired to wear. Your room is still a mess and every square inch is filled with the wrinkled, rejected shirts. If only you had not allowed for your rejected shirts to pile up, making it impossible to find your desired shirt back. You wish you had used the clothes hangers instead of making a mess.
When you get your pictures back and see your subpar picture, you couldn’t help but think about how differently it would have turned out had you been able to find the shirt you desired to wear. You eventually find the desired shirt near the bottom of the pile. It’s wrinkled and recently covered in your tears. #BetterLuckNextYear
Dramatics aside, this story can be a very important lesson to one that is willing to listen. It indirectly alludes to the biblical idea of being sober-minded.
Sober-mindedness means to not allow yourself to be captivated by any type of influence that would lead you away from sound judgment. In order to be sober-minded, you must make an effort to take every thought captive and discern whether the thought is the truth, supported by the Word of God (The Bible), or if the thought is influenced by the work of the enemy.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8; ESV).
Think of your thoughts like the shirts in the story. If you allow your thoughts to pile up without either accepting them (similar to choosing to wear a shirt) or denying them (similar to choosing to hang the shirt back up), you are allowing for a major conflict to overtake your mind that is guaranteed to cloud your judgment.
In the story, the girl had too abundant of a pile that she was overwhelmed. Because of this, she was unable to make a clear and confident decision. Instead, she needed to try on the shirts individually and immediately and either accept (wear it the next day) or deny (hang it back up) the shirts.
Similarly, we need to take each thought captive (pick up the shirt and decide whether or not it is to be worn or hung up) as they occur and discern whether or not they are from the Lord. Like 1 Peter 5:8 states, the devil is seeking to devour someone. He will intentionally target someone that is NOT sober-minded because he knows they are more likely to allow each thought to influence their decisions. Instead of analyzing the foundation of every thought, they just throw it in a pile. The pile then accumulates and becomes too overwhelming to deal with, making the person prone to ungodly decisions outside of the perfect will of God.
The reality is that not all of the thoughts that we encounter in our minds every day are from the Lord. No matter who you are, the enemy is going to try to cause you to stumble. One of the ways he will try to do so is in your mind. However, it is extremely important to note that you are not left weaponless against his attacks. YOU HAVE THE GREATEST, MOST POWERFUL WEAPON OF ALL TIME: GOD’S WORD.
Any thought that enters your mind can either be in support or opposition of God’s Word. That allows for a clear indication of who (God or the devil) the thought is from and how you should deal with it (wear it or put it away).
If the thought is backed up by scripture, it is a thought worthy of being worn. If it is a thought that goes against scripture, it is a thought worthy of being hung up. Never wear the shirts that don’t deserve to be worn. Certainly don’t pile them up. Put the unworthy shirts in their rightful place: in a box that’s headed towards the county landfill.
In case you may be confused, I’ll give an example. A girl is looking in the mirror and a thought enters her mind that claims that she is not beautiful. This thought is opposing various scriptures, such as Psalm 139:13-14 which proclaims, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”
Because the Lord intricately created the girl (Psalm 139:13-14) and He creates good things (James 1:7), she is a beautifully, intricately, and thoughtfully created girl. Had she decided to believe the lie in form of thought of not being beautiful, she would have shown an inability to be sober-minded. Had she decided to believe that scripture trumps whatever lies the enemy tries to scheme, she would be considered sober-minded.
Every day, nearly all waking hours, humans have thoughts entering their minds. Because this is such a consistent cycle, it is extremely important to be sober-minded as a Christian. Without this ability, you will become a slave to whatever lie the enemy decides to deceive you with. DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE DECEIVED. Stand firmly on the Word of God when a thought enters your mind. Be ready to deny or accept it, depending on who the source of the thought is.
You won’t know the difference between a lie or the truth if you can’t distinguish God’s Word (truth) from the devil’s schemes (lie). In order to discern, you must know what the Bible says in relation to the thoughts you have. Once you have a steady and sound knowledge of His Word, you will be able to know when your thoughts align with His Word and when they potentially oppose His Word.
An amazing byproduct of denying and resisting the thoughts that are from the enemy is that, as you consistently do so, they will flee from you (James 4:7). It’s comparable to how a shirt that never gets worn is eventually thrown away and you don’t have to deal with it being in your closet any longer. Whatever the devil once used to cause you to stumble will no longer work and he will give up (because he’s a loser). Through your persistence in pursuing the Word of God, you will have defeated the enemy.
My prayer for you, no matter where you are in your ability to be sober-minded, is that you depend on the Word of God as your ultimate source. That you become consumed in the true goodness of God that is immeasurable. That you do not allow yourself to be deceived by the enemy’s schemes, but will cling to God’s Word and use it as your weapon against the enemy.
Being sober-minded takes discipline, but it is well worth the effort.
WALK ALONGSIDE ME 